


James Rhodes

by FemSanzo291



Series: Keeping Secrets [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Elementary School, Gen, Kid James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Kid Tony Stark, Mental Link, Middle School, Prosthesis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 15:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FemSanzo291/pseuds/FemSanzo291
Summary: Alea met Rhodey when he started at her elementary school. He last saw her while he was training to be an US Air Force pilot.





	1. 1965

**Author's Note:**

> Rhodey for this fic will have been born in 1961 instead of 1969.

James Rupert Rhodes walked nervously into his first-grade class. He had just transferred from his old school in Washington DC to one in New York City. While it might have only been about two weeks into the school year he was sure that there was no way that he would be able to make any friends at his new school.

 

The classroom that he walked into was a colorful room that contained twenty other students. His teacher placed him into a seat next to a girl with brown hair and amber eyes. She smiled widely at him before he sat down. 

 

“I’m Alea Stark.” She held out her hand for him to shake.

 

He took it and answered with, “James Rhodes.” 

 

They became fast friends. Throughout that first day, she would help him get around school and at the end of it, he would ask her to call him by something other than James. 

 

“Do you like the name Rhodey then?” Alea had thought long and hard about what to call him. When she saw that he was smiling she smiled back at him. From then on he would go by Rhodey. That was the start of a friendship that would last decades.


	2. 1967

The first time Alea would ever use her telepathic abilities would be with Rhodey. It was completely by accident, and it would be something that would cause great strife for her teachers for many years.

 

She was sitting on the other side of the class from him and while maintaining eye contact she would think so hard that she entered his mind. _“Rhodey this class is so boring.”_ Was the first thought to go from her mind to his.

 

Rhodey, in his defense, only jumped a little when he heard her voice in his head and quickly figured out how to communicate with her in his mind. _“I want to leave too, Alea. We shouldn’t though.”_

 

Alea nodded and thought about how she could use her powers to talk to him without being overheard.

 

Rhodey would be the first person that she wouldn’t have to eye contact with to be able to enter his mind. She would eventually call that a mental link.


	3. 1970

Rhodey remembered the day that he and Alea started middle school. Alea had told him that he would be surprised at what she would be going by when they moved into middle school. Their homeroom teacher placed them in seats by the last name. Alea stood next to him as the roll was called and children were placed into their seats.

 

“Alea Carter.” Alea moved from beside him and she took her seat. 

 

He looked at her with wide eyes and she entered his mind.  _ “Dad thought that now that he has a true heir in Anthony, that I shouldn’t go by the Stark name anymore. I’m glad in a way. Aunt Peggy has always been more of a parent to me anyways.” _

 

As Rhodey sat in the seat indicated by the teacher, he wished that he could stragleate Howard Stark. He would wish that several times throughout his life, no matter which of the two siblings he was thinking about.  _ “Still he shouldn't have made you take your aunt’s last name. I don't care if Anthony is to be his heir or not. Really that should be you. You were the first born you should be the hair of Howard Stark, not your brother.” _

 

_ “Rhodey, I do not think that you realize that because of my genetic flaws makes me useless as an heir. At least in my father’s eyes. You know that if I don't keep on taking those injections that I could end up deaf and blind.” _

 

_ “Alea we will need to talk about yourself hating later.”  _

 

Alea left Rhodey’s mind and paid attention to the teacher’s speech. 

 

As time went on, Alea knew that things would change for her now that her brother was here. She would protect him no matter what.


	4. 1974

As they got older, they started to join clubs and things. Both joined their school’s science club. The eighth-grade group, which they were apart of, was part of a national competition to make something that would go on display at the Stark Expo at the end of that school year. 

 

Alea had helped the group make what they wanted to, a giant protection bubble that anyone could fit in. It ended up as the winner of the competition.

 

“Alea I know that the others do not know who your father is, but they might find out now.” 

 

Alea had not gone home with her parents since her name was changed when she was ten. Instead, the family butler or her aunt had picked her up. That or she went home with Rhodey.

 

“I know, but this is worth it. Also, I know that we will be in the main hall and have about half of it to show off the bubbles. I didn’t even ask about it, but it seems like we will have the prime space.” 

 

“Alea are you going to have to watch Ed during the Expo?” 

 

Normally they would talk through their minds to avoid being overheard, but the lunch hall is extremely crowded and loud, so it was not likely for them to be overheard.

 

“Most likely, but that shouldn’t be an issue at all. I can get him to help with the demos. Also, I do not want him to have to be with dad, Jarvis might take him for part of it.” Rhodey nodded and started to eat his lunch.

 

Two days later, they were setting up the bubbles. Alea placed her brother, Anthony Edward Stark into one of the bubbles. He looked at her with wide eyes as he placed his thumb in his mouth.

 

“Ed, what have I said about you putting your hands in your mouth?” Alea gently pulled his hand from his mouth.

 

“Not to,” he muttered. Alea pulled out a red and gold chainmail hacky sack and handed it to him. He started to play with it as she zipped up the bubble. Rhodey had marked off the part of the room that they were allowed to use with gates. 

 

“Alea, do you think that it’s safe for your brother to be doing this? He’s what two?” one of the others preparing the area asked.

 

“I have very little choice on him being here, and he would fuss a lot because he wants to do the same thing as me. Also, he’s four.” Alea watched as Rhodey got ready. While Anthony wasn’t yet four, he would be in a few weeks, so close enough for her to lie about his age. 

 

Everything went fine for the first four days of the Expo, but on the fifth night as things were winding down things went to hell. Most of the science team was still there, and Anthony had already left for the day. With most of them putting their bubbles up for the night.

 

“Come on just leave with me, Alea,” Rhodey tried to pull her over to get her to leave with him.

 

“Rhodey, my aunt is the one picking me up today. I want to go home with her.” Rhodey nodded and left with his mother.

 

Just as Rhodey left the building it collapsed. More like a bomb went off in it and Rhodey tried to run back into it to get to Alea. His mother held him back as security came running past them to keep people from running into the wreckage.

 

Alea would come out of it alive, but she did lose her arm. It would be replaced by one made of vibranium, though she didn’t know it at the time. 


	5. 1975 - 1985

The last time Rhodey would see her for years, would be the last day of the fall semester of their freshman year of high school. Alea would go missing that night, and no-one would be able to find her for several months.

 

When school started back in January, Alea failed to show up at school. Rhodey went over to her house to see if she was there. She wasn’t. Jarvis told him that she had left and wasn’t planning on coming back. 

 

Jarvis let him into the house. He went straight to see Ed. When he caught the boy’s attention Ed asked who he was. Rhodey knew that Alea had done something to his memory. No notice that he should have a sister who wasn’t there. He said one last goodbye to the four-year-old.

 

Two weeks later, Rhodey would move to Boston, and while there fail two years of high school. Though it was never held against him when he went to college. While he was at MIT he met Ed again.

 

The now fifteen-year-old didn’t even recognize him from that January day that he said goodbye. When Rhodey called him his childhood nickname of Ed he reacted with, “Just call me Tony nothing else. I hate my full name and any type of shorting of my middle.”

 

Rhodey knew that in the combination of Alea wiping his memory, and his father’s anger made his name the one thing that he hated more than his father. Rhodey watched as any time that got overwhelmed he pulled out the red and gold hacky sack that Alea had first given him at the Stark Expo eleven years before. When asked about it he can only say that it had been given to him at the Stark Expo and nothing else.

 

Rhodey would become a lasting friend of the young genius. He never spoke of knowing him as a child or knowing that he had a sister that he didn’t remember.


	6. 1988

Rhodey ran into Alea one more time during his cadetship for the USAF. He had been taking some of his flight hours one early morning, when he realized that he was flying something that wasn't supposed to be. He radioed into the base, and they told him to either complete the flight or to come back. He knew that he could manage to turn it around and land. He decided to do so a radioed back that he was doing so.

 

When the landing gear refused to deploy, he just brought the jet down as smooth as he could without crashing into the ground. It didn't necessarily work as well, and he passed out as the plane hit the ground and part of the cockpit clasped.

 

When he came to, about ten minutes later, he could hear a familiar voice yelling above him. He noticed that he wasn't in pain, just as he felt someone grab the back of his jumpsuit before pulling him out of the cockpit. He looked up at the person, as he was dropped down onto the wing. He knew that metal arm and the voice. Alea Stark, no, Alea Carter.

 

"Lea," he whispered. Alea looked down at him and gave him a small smile, before dropping down next to him on the wing and helping him to the ground. Once they were both standing on even ground, Rhodey realized that he was finally taller than Alea.

 

She smiled at him before shoving him towards medical, and that would be the last time he saw her for some time. He figured out that she was the reason behind he got more flight hours than he should have for that single flight.


End file.
